East Asia and Pacific remains the world’s growth engine despite a challenging external environment, with developing economies growing by 7.2% in 2013. The proportion of people living in poverty in the region has steadily declined—less than 10% of the population lives on $1.25 a day—but much more needs to be done as there are still close to half a billion people living on $2 a day.
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“Who has a latrine at home?” asks Sophan San, a commune sanitation facilitator from the commune council for women and children. Only about one quarter of the villagers sitting on the floor in fro... Show More +nt of her raise their hands.Sophan is facilitating a sanitation awareness session in Thmey village, a small rural village with 146 households in Kandal Province, Cambodia, the country with the highest open defecation rate in East Asia at 51%. The meeting focuses on how sanitation contributes to dignity, convenience, and safety, with a goal of increasing the number of households who will use a latrine.One of the meeting attendees, Sor Mech, was not able to raise her hand. She does not have a latrine at home, which means she, along with her husband, their children and three grandchildren, all must go out in the surrounding fields to defecate. Sor is acutely aware of the negative impact open defecation has on her family’s health since she uses other hygienic practices, such as boiling water and washing her hands. She has wanted a latrine since attending a similar meeting months earlier; she and her family simply hadn’t been able to afford one.At this meeting, however, Sophan, who received training through WSP, was able to connect a local microfinance institute to offer small loans to villagers who wanted to buy a latrine. At the meeting, Sor secured a US$50 loan which will allow her to buy a pour-flush latrine slab and substructure. This latrine will help limit Sor and her family’s exposure to fecal matter, and therefore reduce health threats, such as diarrheal disease, caused by fecal contamination. She is planning to save up for building a permanent structure around the latrine, but she says for now, she and her family will hang an old blanket for privacy.In Cambodia, more than half of the population lacks access to improved sanitation. In rural areas, the situation is even worse, where 86% of the poorest rural Cambodians practice open defecation. Lack of access to sanitation imposes significant economic and social costs on rural Cambodians, from higher child mortality due to diarrhea, to stunted growth and development in children. Show Less -

According to the World Bank report titled East Asia’s Changing Urban Landscape: Measuring a Decade of Spatial Growth, Cambodia has a very small amount of urban area and urban population. Phnom Penh, w... Show More +ith over one million people, remains the only major urban area in the country.Country findingsCambodia has the fourth-smallest amount of urban land among the countries studied (after the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste).The amount of urban area grew from 110 square kilometers in 2000 to 160 in 2010. Only 0.1% of its total land mass was urban, the lowest proportion in East Asia after Lao PDR, Mongolia, and Papua New Guinea.Although the absolute amount of new built-up area was small, the rate of urban spatial expansion was the second fastest after Lao PDR: 4.3% a year, on average.Cambodia also has among the smallest but fastest-growing urban populations, growing at 4.4% a year from 920,000 people to 1.4 million between 2000 and 2010.Cambodia shares many urban characteristics with its neighbor Lao PDR, but has a much higher average urban population density: 8,600 people per square kilometer in Cambodia in 2010, in contrast to 3,200 in Lao PDR.The two other settlements in Cambodia sometimes considered cities are Baat Dambang and Siem Reap, though the urban populations of both were less than 100,000 people in 2010.Siem Reap doubled in size and tripled in population between 2000 and 2010. Show Less -

SINGAPORE, January 26, 2015 — Almost 200 million people moved to urban areas in East Asia from 2000-2010 – a figure that would be the world’s sixth-largest population for any single country, acco... Show More +rding to new data released today by the World Bank.For the first time, the data compares urban areas and their populations in a consistent manner across East Asia, providing governments and local leaders with a better understanding of the shape and scale of the growth so they can get urbanization right – creating opportunities for all.“Rapid urbanization is a significant challenge for East Asia, but we cannot manage what we cannot measure,” said Axel van Trotsenburg, the World Bank East Asia and Pacific Regional Vice President. “We’re releasing this data so urban leaders can get a better picture and take action to ensure that urban growth benefits the increasing number of people moving to cities, especially the poor.”Analyzed in a new report titled “East Asia’s Changing Urban Landscape: Measuring a Decade of Spatial Growth,” the data indicates that overall, urban areas in East Asia expanded at an average of 2.4 percent per year during the decade studied, with urban land reaching 134,800 square kilometers in 2010.Urban populations grew even faster at an annual average rate of 3.0 percent, increasing to 778 million in 2010 – the largest of any region in the world. Other sources indicate that it took more than 50 years for the same number to become urbanized in Europe.The report finds a direct link between urbanization and income growth, showing how economic output per capita increased throughout the region as the percentage of people living in urban areas went up.The report says that there are 869 urban areas with more than 100,000 people in the East Asia region. They include eight megacities of more than 10 million people: the Pearl River Delta, Shanghai and Beijing in China; Tokyo and Osaka in Japan; and Jakarta, Seoul and Manila. China’s Pearl River Delta has overtaken Tokyo to become the largest urban area in the world in both size and population.At the same time, there was significant growth in smaller urban areas. In fact, the 572 smallest urban areas – with populations of 100,000 to 500,000 – as well as the 106 medium-sized urban areas with populations of 1 million to 5 million, have more total land area than the eight megacities.A notable feature of this expansion is that urban areas are also getting denser on average, which if well managed, can be good for the environment and can lead to more efficient provision of services to people. However, this growth poses a significant challenge due to metropolitan fragmentation, with almost 350 urban areas spilling over local administrative boundaries. In some cases, multiple cities are merging into a single entity while they continue to be administered separately.As urbanization transforms the face of East Asia, governments and local leaders trying to understand and respond have been hampered by a lack of internationally comparable data because countries use differing definitions of urban areas and populations.The new data set was created to address this challenge by using satellite imagery and techniques for modeling population distribution, mapping all human settlements to achieve a common understanding of urbanization trends. This approach can systematically establish where urbanization is occurring, how fast it is happening, and how population growth relates to increases in urban land area.“Once cities are built, their urban form and land-use patterns are locked in for generations,” said Marisela Montoliu Munoz, Director of the World Bank Group Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice. “Improving the quality of data to understand trends in urban expansion is important, so that policy makers can make better-informed decisions to support sustainable communities in a rapidly changing environment, with access to services, jobs and housing.”Despite such significant and rapid growth, the data reveals that less than one percent of the total area in East Asia is urbanized, and only 36 percent of the total population is urban – suggesting that the region’s urban expansion has only just begun. While urbanization in the region is largely driven by market forces, policy makers at the national and municipal levels have an important role to play in ensuring that it is sustainable and inclusive:Prepare for future spatial expansion by facilitating access to land so expansion can occur efficiently, using mechanisms such as guided land development, land pooling and readjustment, land sharing and transfer of development rights.Ensure economically efficient urbanization by addressing the entire system of cities through national urbanization strategies, supporting public investments in a range of large, small and medium-sized cities to foster diverse economic activity.Make urbanization inclusive by planning spatial growth to help reduce inequality in access to economic opportunities and address the vulnerabilities of recent migrants.Foster sustainable urbanization by ensuring high-density urban areas are well located, planned and coordinated to produce a walkable, livable environment.Overcome metropolitan fragmentation by coordinating urban services across municipal boundaries, using regional government authorities and other mechanisms.“Getting urban form, density, and administrative coordination right will be essential to help end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity,” said Abhas Jha, the Practice Manager for the World Bank Group Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice.------------------------------EAST ASIA URBAN EXPANSION IN NUMBERS (2000-2010)200 million: East Asia’s newly ur urban population, equivalent to the world’s 6th largest country42 million: Total population of Pearl River Delta, world’s largest urban area – more than Argentina, Australia, Canada and Malaysia2.4 % : Average urban land growth per year1% : Total area of urban land in 201036% : Total urban population in 2010, up from 29% in 2000869: Total urban areas with more than 100,000 people--------This study was made possible through the generous support of Australian Aid.To read the full report, visit: http://www.worldbank.org/eap/measuringurbanexpansionTo view maps and download data, visit: puma.worldbank.org----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Urban Expansion Data Analysis CompetitionTo further improve our understanding of urban expansion, the World Bank is calling for submissions of (1) data visualization and (2) proposals for a policy research paper, using the new data set introduced in the report “East Asia’s Changing Urban Landscape: Measuring a Decade of Spatial Growth.” For more information, visit: http://www.worldbank.org/eap/measuringurbanexpansion Show Less -

January 26, 2015Key FindingsAlmost 200 million people moved to urban areas in East Asia from 2000-2010, a figure that would be the world’s sixth-largest population for any single country.Most of East ... Show More +Asia’s population is still non-urban, meaning the region will likely face decades of further urbanization.The Pearl River Delta in China – which includes the cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan and Dongguan – has overtaken Tokyo as the world’s largest urban area in both size and population, with more inhabitants than countries such as Argentina, Australia or Canada.China’s government-implemented urbanization dominates East Asia with 600 of the region’s 869 urban areas located in the country, which also has more than two-thirds of East Asia’s total urban land.East Asia’s urban areas included eight “megacities” with populations over 10 million, 123 large cities with one to 10 million people, and 738 medium and small cities with 100,000 to one million people.The report establishes a direct link between urbanization and income growth, showing how economic output per capita increased throughout the region as the percentage of people living in urban areas went up.Expanding urban areas often cross administrative or political boundaries such as municipal borders, which fragments government management and revenue sources.The rate at which urban areas expanded physically varied widely between countries. Mostly rural countries had the highest spatial expansion rates, with Lao PDR at 7.3 percent and Cambodia at 4.3 percent, while industrialized Japan had the lowest rate of increase at 0.4 percent despite containing the second-largest amount of urban land behind China. Show Less -

Learning lessons from demand-side
governance or social accountability initiatives is no
different in principle than learning lessons in other
development projects. ... Show More +Evidence from Cambodia however,
suggests that a range of disincentives affect the learning
process. Capacity, financing, competition, a desire to be
seen to succeed and a lack of willingness to do things
differently, all curtail the lesson learning process. This
note sets out some of the issues encountered in the Demand
for Good Governance (DFGG) project and makes recommendations
for innovative projects to be cast as learning initiatives
that address disincentives and create space for learning
about what works, what doesnt work and why. Show Less -

Beneficiary and third party monitoring
of government services is new to Cambodia, but recent
efforts at the district level have paved the way for local
NGOs to vent... Show More +ure into this field successfully. As a part of
an initiative to provide transparent and accountable
administrative services at the district level, a DFGG grant
stimulated a partnership between the One Window Service
Office (OWSO) and a provincial NGO. This partnership is
unique in so much as it supported government in promoting
awareness of citizens through outreach and mobilization
activities. At the same time the arrangement provided an
important monitoring and feedback mechanism. Although this
dual role creates a complex set of activities and a
multi-sided relationship with the One Window Service Office
(OWSO) and District Administration, it has been very
effective in improving accountability and responsiveness.
The approach is now being replicated to OWSOs in 24
provinces, not only through grants to NGOs, but also by OWSO
directly contracting NGOs. Show Less -

Providing transparent services through a
local Citizen Service Center mechanism requires process
re-engineering and the development of new management
systems. This ... Show More +learning note describes the various systems
and processes that were put in place for the One Window
Service Office (OWSO) initiative in Cambodia and how they
have fared in reaching the objective of delivering
accountable and transparent administrative services to
citizens. This is an important model for improved service
delivery, not only for district government but also for
other government offices providing services to the people of Cambodia. Show Less -

The Arbitration Council is a body
established to resolve collective labor disputes. At present
over 90% of these disputes are from the garment industry,
and over 1,... Show More +900 cases have been heard. This Learning Note
captures the experience of the Arbitration Council
Foundation, the supporting arm of the Arbitration Council 
in its effort to broker a financial arrangement to sustain
the operations of Arbitration Council after the DFGG project
financed by the World Bank closes. The note sets out the
issues, processes and key challenges. It also makes
suggestions for future steps to operationalize a
multi-stakeholder financial sustainability strategy. Show Less -

In order to achieve the underlying
reform objectives of citizen service centers, it is
necessary to ensure that staff are appropriately selected,
trained and manage... Show More +d. This learning note sets out the
staffing approach taken in the DFGG funded one window
service Office initiative in Cambodia , describing the
elements of the staffing, and setting out what worked, what
didnt work and the steps that are being considered to
address the problems of staffing that are arising during implementation. Show Less -

Gender disaggregated data from the
Non-State Actors (NSAC) component of the DFGG Project
indicate that men and women are engaged in sub-projects in
fairly equal num... Show More +bers. This does not imply however that the
engagement of men and women in the subprojects is the same,
or that their participation is equal. Men tend to attend
more activities which require representation and decision,
whereas women participate in, and are often over-represented
in, less consequential meetings and events, often more
passive in nature. Different types of projects also lead to
different levels and quality of participation by men and
women. This learning note provides an initial analysis of
gender disaggregated data from the activities led by NGOs
during 2011. Show Less -

The Non-State Actors Component (NSAC) of
the Demand for Good Governance project aimed to improve
accountability, transparency and responsiveness in service
delivery... Show More + and other administrative functions by supporting
the implementation of social accountability tools and
practices. This included efforts to introduce community
monitoring of local services and resource allocation.
Drawing on consolidated results and experiences where the
community scorecard was implemented, this Learning Note
highlights the strong achievements of community scorecards
in the context of Cambodia, sets out how accountability and
delivery of services were strengthened, and reminds us of
the challenges and limitations of these activities. Show Less -

In the Demand for Good Governance (DFGG)
project in Cambodia, it was agreed at project appraisal that
grants to non-state actors would be selected through an
indepe... Show More +ndent, multi-stakeholder grant making committee. After
three rounds of grants, and the commitment of $3.2 million
to non-state actors for social accountability activities, it
is useful to reflect on the relevance and effectiveness of
this selection mechanism. This note presents a brief summary
of the objectives of the grant making committee, how it was
set up, how it worked in practice, and the strengths and
weaknesses of the approach. Show Less -

Although social accountability has been
a part of the development agenda in Cambodia for a few
years, only a limited number of non-state actors are
currently engage... Show More +d in these governance-related initiatives.
Developing this platform of actors is not straightforward as
it can require non-government organizations to fundamentally
change their missions, roles and relationships and take on
board new ways of working. This is particularly challenging
for NGOs that have become known as, and adept at, service
providers in lieu of government. Some NGOs are moving on
from the service provider role and reorienting activities to
help improve the accountability of state service providers,
whereas others attempt to perform both service provider and
social accountability roles simultaneously. This short note
reflects on the challenges service delivery NGOs face in
their efforts to undertake social accountability activities
in Cambodia. Show Less -

Partnerships between national and
sub-national state actors and non-state actors were a key
part of the demand for good governance (DFGG) project. They
aimed to ens... Show More +ure the transfer of social accountability skills
and practices, to leverage existing resources to support
accountability and governance activity, and to explore the
ways that state and non-state actors can work together. This
note draws on the experiences of non-government
organizations (NGOs) that implemented partnerships in the
DFGG project, and includes lessons that can be applied in
the design of future initiatives. Show Less -

Citizen outreach is a key part of the
one window service office (OWSO) initiative in Cambodia.
OWSO offices in district administrations launch the new
service in tr... Show More +aditional Khmer style with a street parade to
share information in markets and public places. These public
awareness campaigns are conducted to encourage citizens and
businesses to take up the services provided by the OWSO and
District Ombudsmen (DO) and raise awareness about the
quality of service delivery they can expect. Outreach
activities held after the OWSO opening then focus on getting
feedback on the quality of services, which is important to
ensure continued high performance of the OWSO. Increasingly,
outreach has drawn on the support of local non-state actors
to partner with the OWSOs for greater impact. This demand
for good governance (DFGG) learning note describes the
efforts and challenges of outreach and communication in the
newly launched citizen service centers in Cambodia. Show Less -

The non-state actor's component
(NSAC) of the demand for good governance (DFGG) project
resulted in citizen or community monitoring of over 300
schools, 100 health ... Show More +centers, and 100 communes. This provided
a sample to compare approaches to the design and
implementation of a well-known social accountability tool.
In the early stages of agreeing the scope and content of
grants, it was noted that many Cambodian non-government
organizations (NGOs) were opting to implement community
scorecards - a feedback and dialogue mechanism - through
committees comprised of Councilors, service providers and
citizens. This learning note considers the experience of
multi-stakeholder committees in facilitating citizen
feedback processes. It sets out what worked, what didnt
work and why, and presents some simple lessons. Show Less -

The one window service office and
district Ombudsmen initiative in Cambodia seeks to provide
more efficient, transparent and accountable administrative
services at ... Show More +the district level. Achieving this requires a
significant change in the mindset of government staff at
central and sub-national level as they learn to share
licensing authority and re-orient themselves from an
attitude of administrator to one of service provider as
explicitly called for in Cambodian government policy. This
implies a whole new mindset around transparency,
accountability, customer-orientation and of course, rent
seeking. At the same time, customers, whether individual
citizens seeking civil registrations or small businesses
obtaining commercial licenses, must also change their
expectations and attitudes, becoming more willing to demand
better services, avail themselves of complaint mechanisms
when necessary, and comply with regulation voluntarily. This
learning note discusses the role that attitudes have played
in achieving results to date and examines the remaining challenges. Show Less -

Phnom Penh, November 17, 2014—We are engaged in a process of broad consultations with stakeholders, with online consultations ongoing and face to face consultation meetings to be scheduled. These cons... Show More +ultations will inform the planned future World Bank Group Country Engagement Note (CEN), which will guide the envisaged re-engagement. New International Development Association (IDA) financing commitments would be made after the consultations and through and under the CEN. We continue disbursing funds under current projects under implementation, and administering other development partners’ commitments/Trust Funds. Show Less -

The royal Cambodian government (RCG) has
achieved remarkable progress in recent years in reducing the
poverty rate by more than half. However, the majority of
those... Show More + escaping from poverty only did so marginally and
remain largely near-poor and still highly vulnerable to the
slightest of shocks. One of the most critical factors in
enabling the poor to escape from poverty, and not only
remain non-poor but go on to prosper, lies in ensuring
higher levels of health welfare in these households. This is
especially important in rural areas, where most of
Cambodias poor reside and where health indicators show a
stark divergence with those for urban areas. If poverty is
to continue to decline apace, and the gap between rich and
poor is to continue to narrow, then the RCG will need to
ensure that poor and near-poor peoples health care is
greatly improved such that they can make the most of the new
opportunities in education and employment that are now
becoming available. With significant improvements in some
health indicators over the past decade, the major challenges
in health care going forward are now becoming clearer. These
include: making a breakthrough in tackling high levels of
child mortality and child malnutrition; addressing equity
more effectively in health service provision and health
spending, through pro-poor targeted programs and
improvements in the coverage and rates of use of health
equity funds (HEF); and the improved monitoring of
unregulated private providers of medication used by the
majority of the poor. In addition, another crucial step
forward will be providing adequate financing and ensuring
the implementation of Cambodias first national social
protection strategy (NSPS). Show Less -

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a
set of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease,
cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes that are
on the ... Show More +rise in Cambodia. Meanwhile, injuries include those
due to traffic accidents, which are becoming a major source
of mortality and morbidity in Cambodia. NCDs are increasing
in Cambodia as a result of smoking, unhealthy diet, harmful
use of alcohol, and physical inactivity, all resulting in a
sharp increase in the rates of obesity and high blood
pressure. NCDs are affecting Cambodians in their productive
years. Over half men and over a third of women dying from
NCDs are younger than 60 years. The high cost of long-term
health care and medicines, along with loss of income, pushes
many Cambodian families deeper into poverty. It also
overburdens the country's health system, constraining
efforts to improve maternal and child health and tackle
infectious diseases. Because of the nature of NCDs, which
are rooted in multiple causes, strengthening the health
system alone will not reduce the burden of NCDs. Many of the
actions needed to prevent and control these diseases require
the participation of numerous ministries and government
agencies, as well as the private sector. For Cambodians to
continue enjoying the fruits of economic growth, a strong
commitment by the government, the people, and the
international community is becoming increasing important.
Improved coordination among all ministry of health (MOH)
task forces will maximize financial and human resources and
help implement priority NCDI-related interventions as part
of, and not separate from, other ongoing programs. The
application of the measures will benefit from clear
procedures for joint planning, programming, budgeting,
training, reporting, and monitoring and evaluation (M and E)
of all programs. Show Less -